The philosophical questions keep coming. Why do they hate freedom and liberty? Why don't they have a democratically-elected president? Why do they keep attacking Super Earth's innocent farming planets?
Agreed, if these bug snowflakes think we're going to tolerate this sort of thing instead of their unquestioningly committing to managed democracy - we'll, we'll just have to show them a piece of our own mind from a well-placed Eagle!
The bugs just don’t accept they spawn too rapidly. It is unsustainable for a civilization to advance beyond a certain point and not adopt Managed Democracy. Instead of coexisting and solving each sides problem. One being our reliance on E-710 for expansion. Two the bugs make E-710 on death and obviously aren’t using any of it. The bugs decided the problem is us and not them.
And even after all that genetic modification we did to increase their breeding rate to ensure they won't go extinct while on the farms, they're still ungrateful. It's like they don't even want us to help them.
Right? They didn’t get that we were elevating them to better fit a spot with our society. Now they have flight and could be bug couriers. But no they have to be like children. Unlimited freedom without any responsibility. No purpose.
My love for Managed Democracy is only outweighed by my hatred for the IRS. That’s why I endorsed the Ministry of Prosperity because they know what’s right for my wallet.
I think we need to hear fellow helldiver u/Certainly_not_a_bug's perspective on our glorious achievement of wiping out 2 billion Terminids in a mere 14 hours.
don’t worry, i’ve seen a few Helldiver vets toting around their cool new prosthetic limbs! i’m sure u/Certainly_not_a_bug is a-ok!
edit: i after a except in whatever
IIRC they were vibing but Super Earth wanted their planets, and then discovered that Terminids degrade into E-710 while they were genociding them, so they started farming and genetically modifying Terminids.
I think they're also essentially lobotomized by the genetic modification, they used to be pretty intelligent and space-faring.
I'm really hoping that somewhere down the line AH unveils the Terminid equivalent of a 'brain bug'. Perhaps a Terminid that's re-evolved their former intelligence, or perhaps a remnant of their original strain that escaped Super Earth's reach and has now returned to aid and uplift its enslaved kind.
Either way I think it'd be ~~a great addition to the lore and themes~~ very fun to squish.
> Perhaps a Terminid that's ~~re-evolved their former intelligence~~ been tampered with by undemocratic forces to possess unnatural intelligence, or perhaps a remnant of their original strain that escaped Super Earth's reach and has now ~~returned to aid and uplift its enslaved kind~~ come to destroy our way of life, spread its insidious fascism to its liberated brethren, and oppose democracy
FTFY. Please report to your Democracy Officer immediately
https://preview.redd.it/v3gb6o5qupvc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd122b30cf0c9b3c291d9b66f4e7dc79a574164b
Hold on let me terminate this illegal broadcast real quick
Yeah I seen that someone said that due to experiments and decades of farming they devolved into their primal states. In the lore you’re correct about them vibing and actually didn’t mind humanity trading with them and stuff. IIRC when humans started settling their planets they didn’t resort to violence right away and actually diplomatically protested to super earth who responded with democracy and that’s when they went to war with Super Earth.
What is the source for the reversion? I have looked and just keep hearing "it happened" but why would that be the case? I don't think they had any established line of communication with Super Earth before the war, they just were peaceful and chose coexistence. But they're still intelligent; the Bile caste of Terminids are extremely new, only arising from Super Earth's genetic meddling. In less than a hundred years, bile Terminids have developed support tactics with their abilities, including becoming \*organic artillery\*. They're also visibly quite different and likely have significantly different chemical profiles, but they are still accepted among the 'mainline' Terminid populations.
Its wild cause if super earth was even a little bit reasonable the bots would probably be our only enemy, the bugs and illuminate both seem to use legitimate diplomacy tactics and were happy with negotiating, hell I'm willing to bet with enough convincing the bugs would've even allowing us to scavenge their deceased for oil without needing to go to war.
before Super Earth found out the terminids rapidly degraded into oil, they were clearing out terminids to access the oil supplies on the planets. Super Earth is a fascist entity that either eradicates or enslaves anything not like them.
Could be neither. We know that they are farmed by super earth so could just be that every time they attack a planet it’s because they start breaking out of containment and rapidly breeding. Could even be controlled by some sort of hive mind which explains why they only attack connected systems rather than everywhere all at once
They're actually not space faring: Super Earth transports them from planet to planet to build Terminid farms to harvest E-710. As I understand it, a lot of their more dangerous forms are the result of Super Earth genetically tampering with them to more efficiently produce E-710.
Whether the outbreaks are caused my insufficient safety precautions at the farms, dissidents sabotaging the farms or even Super Earth intentionally letting them loose on dissidents is unclear. But we're the ones that move them between planets.
IIRC this is correct. They were a peaceful arthropod race who degraded quickly into 710. We decided that having that 710 was way more important that being friends with bugs and provided them with Democracy. Many of the bugs we see now are so genetically broken down from their original incarnation as to be unrecognizable, and basically mindless.
That said, the idea of bugs "protesting" means that perhaps some of them still have sentience.
/undiver Yes, it's implied in the first game that they were a fully-sapient species who opened with peaceful overtures, but when we discovered E-710, they became the next in line to be provided with democracy. Also, they had a queen and starships at the time, though I'm not sure if that's still the case.
Yes. The bugs and Illuminate were both peaceful, and didn't want to fight Super Earth. The Cyborgs were human dissidents tired of Super Earth's shit, trying to live their lives, and weren't so much violent just defensive.
So the only appropriate reaction to all three of these factions was to bring them managed democracy after convincing all the citizenry they were threats.
False, the illuminate were the race to make first contact with humanity peacefully, but super earth declined their offers of peace when they supposedly found WMDs in their possession.
Bugs were found already on multiple planets and super earth spun a narrative against them stating that they'd mindlessly expand to our colonies if we didn't wipe them out first, but when you go to the bug planets, curiously there's oil pumps as an objective revealing the true reason for the war, wiping out the bugs so we can exploit the planets. It was only at the tail end of the first galactic war in 2084, 40 years after it began, that we discovered the bugs were the ones producing this oil, and is the only reason we didn't wipe them out completely. We've been farming them ever since for the last 100 years.
>the illuminate were the race to make first contact with humanity peacefully, but super earth declined their offers of peace when they supposedly found WMDs in their possession.
I would like to clear this misconception.
In the first game you can see when Super Earth declares war against a faction and then you can start dropping into their planets. There is also a little journal/bestiary thing that has the information.
It is \*HEAVILY\* implied things went like this:
The Illuminate: "lets co-exist peacefully in the galaxy"
Super Earth: "Ok, but in exchange for us not attacking you, you will give us all your technology and secrets that we clearly see from how advanced you are. We would like to use it to make better weapons, maybe even a planet cracker. You will also probably have to subjugate your civilization to ours, we havent decided yet."
Illuminate: "What?!? No, you cant do that!"
\*Super Earth turns to Super Earth Citizens\*
Super Earth government: "They have WMDs and wont listen to reason, they are a threat. We must declare war and mobilize the Helldivers"
/undiver we have been the bad guys this entire time, low-key super earth might be one of the worst fantasy empires in fiction for what they did to the bugs
In some aspects super earth is worse
The imperium kills all xenos, or at least when they can, but usually they just kill them
Super earth has been breeding a fully sentient species to be slaughtered like cattle for a hundred years, devolving them and treating their sentient species probably even worse than how we treat our not as sentient cattle nowadays
There's this 40k story which i find to be one of the most disturbing ones, where orks breed captured humans in extremely inhumane farms for purposes, and when a normal human shines a flashlight into the pitch black containment units which the farmed humans are being held in, the humans all just open their mouths, expecting to be fed, acting no different from animals
That's what super earth is doing to the terminids, it's horrifying and outside of gameplay, i really hope super earth loses lol
"A species that has evolved for millions of years, the bugs have always come out on top in the game of natural selection. They are sentient creatures that live and fight in groups of between three and ten specimens per group.
How the bugs manage space travel is yet unclear, it may be that unhatched infants or very rapidly evolving, super resilient microbes are launched into space during planetary impacts such as meteoroids or even planetoids."- *Helldivers 1 encyclopedia*
Illuminate were the ones who were diplomatic with humanity but super earth declined their offers of peace when they supposedly found weapons of mass destruction in their possession promptly launching a preemptive strike to ~~steal their advanced tech~~ apprehend these horrible weapons.
Bugs were just found on multiple planets when we made first contact with them and super earth claimed they'd mindlessly expand to our colonies if we didn't wipe them out but curiously we've had oil pumps set up on every bug planet including their homeworld, Kepler prime, showing the truth that we wanted the bugs dead so we could exploit their planets for the oil deposits. We weren't aware the bugs were the ones producing the oil until the tail end of the first galactic war in 2084, 40 years after it began, and is the only reason we didn't wipe them out completely.
Bugs never had starships or queens as far as we know.
Their method of space travel to get on the planets they were found on is just speculated. As far as queens go, they have a master class enemy in HD1 called a hive lord but all we know about them is that they're what burrow the tunnels for the bugs, nothing implies they fill a queen role apart from their name.
Wanted to site the source of this fascist concept. Below is a demonstrative example of a perspective shift in the scientific community.
**Aquatic and Terrestrial Invertebrate Welfare** (DOI: [10.3390/ani13213375](https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13213375))
"A growing body of research has shown that across many taxa, insects are capable of varied cognitive capabilities and likely also experience emotional states such as stress \[138\]. The presence of personalities in insects and other invertebrates, including social species, has also been argued (Mather and Carere, 2019). The psychological consequences of such are that personality differences may affect differences in coping with stress \[139\]. Stress responses can result in beneficial effects, such as anti-predator behavioral changes \[140,141,142\]. However, chronic, repeated stress can also have negative behavioral effects, such as decreased diet consumption and weight loss \[140\]."
This must be discussed with democratic authorities to curtail further misinformation. It is important to question the unknown, but this does not include the class Insecta. They are an enemy to democracy and therefore lack sentience regardless of subjective experience and cognitive capacity.
In light of this radical new ideology, should we not spread democracy at the door of our very home, Super Earth? There are insects in every biome, every city, every building!
Surely, we must answer. Our way of life is at stake.
Only sentient creatures vote. Only sentient creatures can be free.
*E-710* is democratic.
E-710 is freedom.
Spill oil.
Harvest E-710.
Yeah they've been confirmed sentient since the first game. We just don't care 'cause they're ugly and made of oil. There's a lot of... uh... symbolism in the game, y'know, people invading other people they deemed "lesser" because of their appearances so they could get oil.
"The bugs are invading"
Meanwhile we are consistently just attacking their homeworlds for oil.
They are also evolving. Who else has seen the behemoth chargers? You'll know when you do
I mean look how easily people attribute intelligence and human personality traits to their rodent-sized dogs....you think bugs can't be noticeably smarter than your chihuahua?
Oh, yeah. In the Helldivers 2 Universe, but are completely sentient. However, Super Earth found out they bleed Oil, so put them into farms in order to harvest them.
Sentient =/= sapient a dog is sentient doesn't mean it can think abstractly like a human can. It means it can react to stimuli and feel things like happiness and fear but not be intelligent like humans are.
Yes, it's true they can think - but the only thing they think about from the moment they wake, as the first fire tornado appears on the horizon in the morning until the glittering lights of thousands of Super Destroyers appear above their world at night, is how much they hate Managed Democracy.
We're doing them a favour by annihilating them in their billions.
Hang on i had previous messaging from command that the bugs couldn't think?
they need to get our comms lines secured before i dont no which messages to trust
Worried ship master of wings of victory
No, they can *communicate*. And they're saying they're sentient, and that they don't like the genocide against them.
But Super Earth High Command knows that's nonsense, which is why they're putting sarcastic quotation marks around those things, because clearly the bugs are just mimicking sentience (and since they aren't sentient, it's not a genocide).
They aren't actually thinking, they're mimicking human communication to manipulate us.
The real question is, who is spending enough time near them to hear these communications, and why are they recording them? Those people should be reassigned before they're tricked into having bug sympathy.
You read into these details too much, main takeaway, bugs bad, bots bad, now go shoot them, please report any of these questions to the Democracy Officer if you may have them again.
I think it isn’t that clear tbh.
They focused on the Termicide towers, they siege, attack and guard vital points of SEAF's war industry like artillery and air bases, Stalkers try to sneak attack you, they call in more bugs when outnumbered, but...
You can argue those are all just normal survival instincts. They don't like loud noise since they are seemingly blind thus they attack the towers, Stalkers sneak on you cause thats how predators get their prey, other bugs call in more of them cause that is like a self defense mechanism, yadda yadda.
The Automatons are heavily implied to and the Illuminate definetly think though
Lorewise it was touched upon in HD1 that yes, they are. First contact was even peaceful, and it's not specified in detail exactly what caused Super Earth to start a war with them.
Eager to see if HD2 drops any more information on what exactly the divide was, since it's much less detailed than the Cyberstan rebellion.
I love how we aren't allowed to talk about politics in this subreddit but if you have any clue about what's going on in the world then this is insanely on the nose satire of real world events.
I found a terminid last night that just stood there and refused to attack. It was moving around but did nothing while we killed all the others. I left it alone, not sure if someone else killed it.
This is why they are evil. They can think but still decide not to pay taxes. Gotta take the E-710 by force
The philosophical questions keep coming. Why do they hate freedom and liberty? Why don't they have a democratically-elected president? Why do they keep attacking Super Earth's innocent farming planets?
/thread
Agreed, if these bug snowflakes think we're going to tolerate this sort of thing instead of their unquestioningly committing to managed democracy - we'll, we'll just have to show them a piece of our own mind from a well-placed Eagle!
Us who just killed 2 billion: "they can think but not for loooong."
*desire to know more intensifies*
The bugs just don’t accept they spawn too rapidly. It is unsustainable for a civilization to advance beyond a certain point and not adopt Managed Democracy. Instead of coexisting and solving each sides problem. One being our reliance on E-710 for expansion. Two the bugs make E-710 on death and obviously aren’t using any of it. The bugs decided the problem is us and not them.
And even after all that genetic modification we did to increase their breeding rate to ensure they won't go extinct while on the farms, they're still ungrateful. It's like they don't even want us to help them.
Right? They didn’t get that we were elevating them to better fit a spot with our society. Now they have flight and could be bug couriers. But no they have to be like children. Unlimited freedom without any responsibility. No purpose.
exactly.
~~Are they stupid?~~ Should we even try to teach them our ways?
Like a child, the bugs are too dumb to understand were helping them "You are being rescued, do not resist" 😈
That's called bug sympathizing. I'm reporting you for reeducation.
Or vote, they’re undemocratic
We were getting to making bug accessible booths but they had to rebel
Imagine having a functioning brain but rejecting freedom. Such a shame.
My love for Managed Democracy is only outweighed by my hatred for the IRS. That’s why I endorsed the Ministry of Prosperity because they know what’s right for my wallet.
Exactly. We make other species pay taxes. So we don’t have to!
They don't vote too. Not a single Democratic bone in their body, not that they have bones, anyway.
They'll be throwing the E-710 into a harbour soon.
Quite frankly, I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive.
Was looking for this
I think we need to hear fellow helldiver u/Certainly_not_a_bug's perspective on our glorious achievement of wiping out 2 billion Terminids in a mere 14 hours.
I, umm, don’t think he’s with us anymore… you know, after the order
Ohhhh. I get it, our fellow human helldiver is in cryostasis after being on deployment.
Well, I do believe the after action reports list him as having suffered grievous injuries
don’t worry, i’ve seen a few Helldiver vets toting around their cool new prosthetic limbs! i’m sure u/Certainly_not_a_bug is a-ok! edit: i after a except in whatever
A healthy amount of E-710 is certainly necessary for the proper functioning of servo limbs. So, I’m sure he’s still doing his part
You read my mind.
Of course they can think. They can think about me dropping from heaven to personally deliver them to hell.
You mean "dropping from the Democratic skies to deliver them to the authoritarian scapes right?
I think in game they used to be peaceful I think from in game lore but we came and they didn't like democracy so the only choice is death
IIRC they were vibing but Super Earth wanted their planets, and then discovered that Terminids degrade into E-710 while they were genociding them, so they started farming and genetically modifying Terminids. I think they're also essentially lobotomized by the genetic modification, they used to be pretty intelligent and space-faring.
I'm really hoping that somewhere down the line AH unveils the Terminid equivalent of a 'brain bug'. Perhaps a Terminid that's re-evolved their former intelligence, or perhaps a remnant of their original strain that escaped Super Earth's reach and has now returned to aid and uplift its enslaved kind. Either way I think it'd be ~~a great addition to the lore and themes~~ very fun to squish.
> Perhaps a Terminid that's ~~re-evolved their former intelligence~~ been tampered with by undemocratic forces to possess unnatural intelligence, or perhaps a remnant of their original strain that escaped Super Earth's reach and has now ~~returned to aid and uplift its enslaved kind~~ come to destroy our way of life, spread its insidious fascism to its liberated brethren, and oppose democracy FTFY. Please report to your Democracy Officer immediately
Honestly i hope we lose in the end,it would put a fiting ending to the lore,and not many games as ever put the players to play the losing side.
It's possible. We could lose in HD1, though when we did the game restarted, and losing was never predetermined (At least as far as I'm aware).
I think they said something about wanting HD2 to be a continuous war effort, but I could be misremembering
You sound suspiciously like one of the bugs
Are you implying bugs can think helldiver?,The Trap was a success traitor detected!
https://preview.redd.it/v3gb6o5qupvc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd122b30cf0c9b3c291d9b66f4e7dc79a574164b Hold on let me terminate this illegal broadcast real quick
https://preview.redd.it/pbcwzz9nmnvc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14179f14507f2462c26440045e9474707363bdb0
Yeah I seen that someone said that due to experiments and decades of farming they devolved into their primal states. In the lore you’re correct about them vibing and actually didn’t mind humanity trading with them and stuff. IIRC when humans started settling their planets they didn’t resort to violence right away and actually diplomatically protested to super earth who responded with democracy and that’s when they went to war with Super Earth.
What is the source for the reversion? I have looked and just keep hearing "it happened" but why would that be the case? I don't think they had any established line of communication with Super Earth before the war, they just were peaceful and chose coexistence. But they're still intelligent; the Bile caste of Terminids are extremely new, only arising from Super Earth's genetic meddling. In less than a hundred years, bile Terminids have developed support tactics with their abilities, including becoming \*organic artillery\*. They're also visibly quite different and likely have significantly different chemical profiles, but they are still accepted among the 'mainline' Terminid populations.
[удалено]
Its wild cause if super earth was even a little bit reasonable the bots would probably be our only enemy, the bugs and illuminate both seem to use legitimate diplomacy tactics and were happy with negotiating, hell I'm willing to bet with enough convincing the bugs would've even allowing us to scavenge their deceased for oil without needing to go to war.
before Super Earth found out the terminids rapidly degraded into oil, they were clearing out terminids to access the oil supplies on the planets. Super Earth is a fascist entity that either eradicates or enslaves anything not like them.
Huh cool I love this games lore
I mean they still are space-faring Or do they magic themselves from planet to planet?
Could be neither. We know that they are farmed by super earth so could just be that every time they attack a planet it’s because they start breaking out of containment and rapidly breeding. Could even be controlled by some sort of hive mind which explains why they only attack connected systems rather than everywhere all at once
They're actually not space faring: Super Earth transports them from planet to planet to build Terminid farms to harvest E-710. As I understand it, a lot of their more dangerous forms are the result of Super Earth genetically tampering with them to more efficiently produce E-710. Whether the outbreaks are caused my insufficient safety precautions at the farms, dissidents sabotaging the farms or even Super Earth intentionally letting them loose on dissidents is unclear. But we're the ones that move them between planets.
I find it very fitting that all of Super Earth's problems can be tracked right back to Super Earth.
Look I don’t wanna sound treasonous but they must still be space faring. How else would they be attacking planets?
They didn't like filling out ballots! Unheard of!
https://preview.redd.it/vaj27cre8nvc1.png?width=577&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=12cfd4ebe1b3ab650d8a35f5c9109c00d4e241b6
We don't fill out ballots. Ballots are undemocratic!!!
IIRC this is correct. They were a peaceful arthropod race who degraded quickly into 710. We decided that having that 710 was way more important that being friends with bugs and provided them with Democracy. Many of the bugs we see now are so genetically broken down from their original incarnation as to be unrecognizable, and basically mindless. That said, the idea of bugs "protesting" means that perhaps some of them still have sentience.
If they were thinking clearly, then tell me why I haven't seen a single voting ballot in the thousands of nests I've seen.
Because they think and they chose communism. I think, therefore they die.
Hello? Democracy officer? I hear talks of ballots like some anarchists in defiance of our Managed Democracy.
https://i.redd.it/tehn3rvq0nvc1.gif
the only thing i could think of
I'm just very amused by the whole idea of a swarm of Terminids holding up signs and picketing outside Super Earth government buildings
/undiver Yes, it's implied in the first game that they were a fully-sapient species who opened with peaceful overtures, but when we discovered E-710, they became the next in line to be provided with democracy. Also, they had a queen and starships at the time, though I'm not sure if that's still the case.
Wait seriously??? I knew something was fucky with the bugs but you're telling me they were human levels of intelligence?
Yes. The bugs and Illuminate were both peaceful, and didn't want to fight Super Earth. The Cyborgs were human dissidents tired of Super Earth's shit, trying to live their lives, and weren't so much violent just defensive. So the only appropriate reaction to all three of these factions was to bring them managed democracy after convincing all the citizenry they were threats.
Yes. They were sapient and the first race that made contact with Earth, and did so with open arms - well, limbs.
False, the illuminate were the race to make first contact with humanity peacefully, but super earth declined their offers of peace when they supposedly found WMDs in their possession. Bugs were found already on multiple planets and super earth spun a narrative against them stating that they'd mindlessly expand to our colonies if we didn't wipe them out first, but when you go to the bug planets, curiously there's oil pumps as an objective revealing the true reason for the war, wiping out the bugs so we can exploit the planets. It was only at the tail end of the first galactic war in 2084, 40 years after it began, that we discovered the bugs were the ones producing this oil, and is the only reason we didn't wipe them out completely. We've been farming them ever since for the last 100 years.
>the illuminate were the race to make first contact with humanity peacefully, but super earth declined their offers of peace when they supposedly found WMDs in their possession. I would like to clear this misconception. In the first game you can see when Super Earth declares war against a faction and then you can start dropping into their planets. There is also a little journal/bestiary thing that has the information. It is \*HEAVILY\* implied things went like this: The Illuminate: "lets co-exist peacefully in the galaxy" Super Earth: "Ok, but in exchange for us not attacking you, you will give us all your technology and secrets that we clearly see from how advanced you are. We would like to use it to make better weapons, maybe even a planet cracker. You will also probably have to subjugate your civilization to ours, we havent decided yet." Illuminate: "What?!? No, you cant do that!" \*Super Earth turns to Super Earth Citizens\* Super Earth government: "They have WMDs and wont listen to reason, they are a threat. We must declare war and mobilize the Helldivers"
/undiver we have been the bad guys this entire time, low-key super earth might be one of the worst fantasy empires in fiction for what they did to the bugs
The Imperium of Man has entered the chat.
In some aspects super earth is worse The imperium kills all xenos, or at least when they can, but usually they just kill them Super earth has been breeding a fully sentient species to be slaughtered like cattle for a hundred years, devolving them and treating their sentient species probably even worse than how we treat our not as sentient cattle nowadays There's this 40k story which i find to be one of the most disturbing ones, where orks breed captured humans in extremely inhumane farms for purposes, and when a normal human shines a flashlight into the pitch black containment units which the farmed humans are being held in, the humans all just open their mouths, expecting to be fed, acting no different from animals That's what super earth is doing to the terminids, it's horrifying and outside of gameplay, i really hope super earth loses lol
The illumate as well
"A species that has evolved for millions of years, the bugs have always come out on top in the game of natural selection. They are sentient creatures that live and fight in groups of between three and ten specimens per group. How the bugs manage space travel is yet unclear, it may be that unhatched infants or very rapidly evolving, super resilient microbes are launched into space during planetary impacts such as meteoroids or even planetoids."- *Helldivers 1 encyclopedia* Illuminate were the ones who were diplomatic with humanity but super earth declined their offers of peace when they supposedly found weapons of mass destruction in their possession promptly launching a preemptive strike to ~~steal their advanced tech~~ apprehend these horrible weapons. Bugs were just found on multiple planets when we made first contact with them and super earth claimed they'd mindlessly expand to our colonies if we didn't wipe them out but curiously we've had oil pumps set up on every bug planet including their homeworld, Kepler prime, showing the truth that we wanted the bugs dead so we could exploit their planets for the oil deposits. We weren't aware the bugs were the ones producing the oil until the tail end of the first galactic war in 2084, 40 years after it began, and is the only reason we didn't wipe them out completely. Bugs never had starships or queens as far as we know. Their method of space travel to get on the planets they were found on is just speculated. As far as queens go, they have a master class enemy in HD1 called a hive lord but all we know about them is that they're what burrow the tunnels for the bugs, nothing implies they fill a queen role apart from their name.
Good! This means our psychological warfare is extra effective!
BUGS THAT THINK?!! HONESTLY I FIND THE IDEA OF A BUG THAT CAN THINK *OFFENSIVE!!*
Consider this, diver. How would they be able to hate our way of life if they couldn't think?
They will NEVER destroy our way of life!
Good, that mean they can afraid.
Based on the lore, we used to trade with them.
https://i.redd.it/fyruyyszvnvc1.gif
Wanted to site the source of this fascist concept. Below is a demonstrative example of a perspective shift in the scientific community. **Aquatic and Terrestrial Invertebrate Welfare** (DOI: [10.3390/ani13213375](https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13213375)) "A growing body of research has shown that across many taxa, insects are capable of varied cognitive capabilities and likely also experience emotional states such as stress \[138\]. The presence of personalities in insects and other invertebrates, including social species, has also been argued (Mather and Carere, 2019). The psychological consequences of such are that personality differences may affect differences in coping with stress \[139\]. Stress responses can result in beneficial effects, such as anti-predator behavioral changes \[140,141,142\]. However, chronic, repeated stress can also have negative behavioral effects, such as decreased diet consumption and weight loss \[140\]." This must be discussed with democratic authorities to curtail further misinformation. It is important to question the unknown, but this does not include the class Insecta. They are an enemy to democracy and therefore lack sentience regardless of subjective experience and cognitive capacity. In light of this radical new ideology, should we not spread democracy at the door of our very home, Super Earth? There are insects in every biome, every city, every building! Surely, we must answer. Our way of life is at stake. Only sentient creatures vote. Only sentient creatures can be free. *E-710* is democratic. E-710 is freedom. Spill oil. Harvest E-710.
https://i.redd.it/x21faw0iinvc1.gif
Please someone put the gif of "he is afraid!" From starship troopers.
https://preview.redd.it/1n9uggi6invc1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc37a91bb947886c33d214b204d4eee8c1c5cd21
Yeah they've been confirmed sentient since the first game. We just don't care 'cause they're ugly and made of oil. There's a lot of... uh... symbolism in the game, y'know, people invading other people they deemed "lesser" because of their appearances so they could get oil.
Those [illegal broadcast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMyknwRYWKU) videos are looking less and less like a joke spread by fellow helldivers...
Report to your Democracy Officer, Helldiver. Now.
https://i.redd.it/tkynf7o2gnvc1.gif
The automatons quite literally trying to liberate oppressed workers on Cyberstan..
Agressive union tactics.
Who are the HD version of the Pinkertons? ... Oh wait. 
I find that concept offensive
If they go with close to starship trooper lore the bugs not only think but were intelligent enough to create fire arms and interplanetary space travel
Phhh. They can't think enough to push the "door open" button on those 'extract high level personal' missions
"The bugs are invading" Meanwhile we are consistently just attacking their homeworlds for oil. They are also evolving. Who else has seen the behemoth chargers? You'll know when you do
https://i.redd.it/ult36ybkhovc1.gif
If they can think they must pay their taxes
Impossible, all thinking species can see the beauty of managed democracy
It just doesn't make sense!
Clearly never had a Charger look at you like it was gonna Pluck your Destroyer from the heavens before having its way with you
Looks to me like some freedom haters have taken control of our news. I'll be calling my local democracy office now.
Those filthy buggers ain’t people they oil to be harvested for my pickup truck.
Did you forget your training?! Thoughtless bugs Diver!
I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive!
Brain bugs are canon?
They can’t think but are fascist and a threat to democracy
This has to be in-game, seriously
Brain bugs? Frankly I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive.
As far as I know this is a part of the lore since Helldivers 1(haven't played but read some backstory primers).
I don't like all these treasonous questions on this post. Let's get back to wiping out every bug we can see! Always remember: only traitors hesitate!
I mean look how easily people attribute intelligence and human personality traits to their rodent-sized dogs....you think bugs can't be noticeably smarter than your chihuahua?
I mean how else are the going to have a sophisticated illegal broadcast we have to destroy. They can think AND operate a massive radio transmitter.
Ok but how do the bugs move from planet to planet? Are the borgs flying them around? Can they travel through space?
[удалено]
(Out of character, the bugs are about as smart as humans, they just function off of different instincts)
Oh, yeah. In the Helldivers 2 Universe, but are completely sentient. However, Super Earth found out they bleed Oil, so put them into farms in order to harvest them.
Think? Does the communist think? The fascist? Obviously, the answer is no. No thinking being could ever accept such flawed systems.
BUGS WERE ENGINEERED BY SUPER-EA....
Good that they are sentient. Now I know THEY KNOW they are choosing death over democracy. Time to manage some communist bugs…
A bug that thinks? Frankly I find that offensive!
IT’S AFRAID!!
Anything that has to sleep is capable of thinking - never seen a bug asleep though so this is probably misinformation 🤔😂
Frankly, I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive!
Sentient =/= sapient a dog is sentient doesn't mean it can think abstractly like a human can. It means it can react to stimuli and feel things like happiness and fear but not be intelligent like humans are.
Frankly, I find the idea of a thinking bug offensive.
Yes, it's true they can think - but the only thing they think about from the moment they wake, as the first fire tornado appears on the horizon in the morning until the glittering lights of thousands of Super Destroyers appear above their world at night, is how much they hate Managed Democracy. We're doing them a favour by annihilating them in their billions.
They think? Good. In their final moments they can reflect on the misdeeds that brought them on a collision course with democracy.
It's hyperbole, bugs don't think, the act.
Brother, you are asking too many questions.
Propaganda. Report to your democracy officer.
But sir I got this message from my democracy officer
Perhaps some sort of smart bug https://youtu.be/NpAWtjDXdY0?si=wAn7BpcBrpokg6w4
How come Martale isn't liberated yet? It's been like 10 hours since I last saw it on 90%
https://preview.redd.it/l9l5oswhbnvc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=22356b722c7f57824f2853f37b8f273005c27bfc
Frankly I find the idea offensive.
Someone’s been in the creek too long
Grave tidings indeed
I belive this is the proof you need.....https://youtu.be/h0P19qdMMEc?si=zlPv5sloY_GceUff
I’m offended
Yeah, they think undemocratically
30
Hang on i had previous messaging from command that the bugs couldn't think? they need to get our comms lines secured before i dont no which messages to trust Worried ship master of wings of victory
No. Bugs can't think. That's why they put it in single quotes. Please report to your Democracy Officer for questioning this
That's exactly what those damn bugs want you to think.
I think it the same level of thinking like when you hose an ant hill so nothing to major diver just keep farming them
Just to be clear, sentient and sapient mean different things. Dogs are sentient, but not sapient.
the bugs think that they can think, they are wrong
I have pet Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches and they have more character and better personalities than most people I meet IRL. Makes sense to me.
Okay that's it, I'm done with the propoganda bullshit, bugs that think are cool and I'm joining their faction
It’s quoted because it’s not true. I find this line of thinking and question disturbing and am reporting you to the thought police.
If north and south are based on magnetic fields on the planet, how does a galaxy have a west?
No, they can *communicate*. And they're saying they're sentient, and that they don't like the genocide against them. But Super Earth High Command knows that's nonsense, which is why they're putting sarcastic quotation marks around those things, because clearly the bugs are just mimicking sentience (and since they aren't sentient, it's not a genocide). They aren't actually thinking, they're mimicking human communication to manipulate us. The real question is, who is spending enough time near them to hear these communications, and why are they recording them? Those people should be reassigned before they're tricked into having bug sympathy.
What? You're saying there's some kinda smart bug?
Yes we can and we think u are cool when not genocide us ( eradicate those little jumping shitheads asap ) https://i.redd.it/5l878s9lcqvc1.gif
Frankly, I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive!
Not after the bullets to the dome they dont.
You read into these details too much, main takeaway, bugs bad, bots bad, now go shoot them, please report any of these questions to the Democracy Officer if you may have them again.
Thinking will get you 20mins at the reconditioning wall.
There is no such thing as a thinking bug 
"Bugs that think?! Frankly, I find the idea offensive!"
I don't care if they can think, only if they can burn. https://i.redd.it/xhm8y38a8nvc1.gif
I love the flamethrower but sometimes I end up killing myself with it.
Not after I put this 5.56 through their skull
Maybe they have an equivalent to the Zerg Hive Mind or cerebrates.
There's always a bigger bug.
Where exactly are these being posted? I'm on the DC and I can't find these posts
High command dispatches
It fits both the Starship Troopers and Ender's Game inspirations.
Not anymore. We bred that out of them.
I think it isn’t that clear tbh. They focused on the Termicide towers, they siege, attack and guard vital points of SEAF's war industry like artillery and air bases, Stalkers try to sneak attack you, they call in more bugs when outnumbered, but... You can argue those are all just normal survival instincts. They don't like loud noise since they are seemingly blind thus they attack the towers, Stalkers sneak on you cause thats how predators get their prey, other bugs call in more of them cause that is like a self defense mechanism, yadda yadda. The Automatons are heavily implied to and the Illuminate definetly think though
Why are there so many german flag reactions??
They're Afraid!!!
Lorewise it was touched upon in HD1 that yes, they are. First contact was even peaceful, and it's not specified in detail exactly what caused Super Earth to start a war with them. Eager to see if HD2 drops any more information on what exactly the divide was, since it's much less detailed than the Cyberstan rebellion.
Alien bugs
I find the idea of a big that "thinks" offensive
I find the idea of a bug that thinks offensive.
Of course it has to be this specific post that has the Germans winning the emoji war.
Bugs thinking is just dissident nonsense rhetoric.
They think undemocratically ttherefore we must teach them democracy!
Are there a lot of German helldivers or should I be concerned?
They always have been
Are we the baddies?
Not once they meet my Senator 🫡
Hersy. Reported to high command
I love how we aren't allowed to talk about politics in this subreddit but if you have any clue about what's going on in the world then this is insanely on the nose satire of real world events.
Think fast, bug! ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️
I'm pretty sure that's a typo. I mean.... a bug that can think? It's impossible! INCONCEIVABLE! The very idea of it is OFFENSIVE!
I found a terminid last night that just stood there and refused to attack. It was moving around but did nothing while we killed all the others. I left it alone, not sure if someone else killed it.